When people hear about living a frugal lifestyle, they immediately attribute it to being stingy, but there’s a difference between the two words. The difference lies in the attitude towards spending. A stingy person refers to someone that has money but is not willing to spend it, while a frugal person refers to someone that likes to spend on necessary things. In other words, they will only spend money on something that is important.
A frugal lifestyle involves changing your approach towards spending and adopting new money habits. These new habits will help you stay out of debt, build a savings fund and live within your means.
What does a frugal lifestyle mean?
A frugal lifestyle involves having a plan for your money and being intentional about spending money. A frugal lifestyle helps you live below your means and ensures that you’re spending on the right things and according to your priorities.
Benefits of a frugal lifestyle.
If you’re looking to gain financial independence and be financially free from debts, these are the reasons why you should embrace a frugal lifestyle:
Less reliant on a paycheck:
When one lives a frugal lifestyle, you essentially have more money to save and at your disposal. Hence you don’t have to be reliant on your next paycheck based on a bad financial decision you made. Here, you can take charge of your money by telling it where to go by planning your income and living below your means.
Difficult times:
Living a frugal lifestyle helps you have extra money to set aside for emergency purposes. You can save more money to build your emergency funds. Having money during your difficult time enables you solve the problem head-on and as quickly as possible.
It helps define what is important to you:
By living a frugal lifestyle, your spending priorities are defined. You can determine what’s important to you and spend on only that. It also prevents unnecessary spending.
Become more self-sufficient:
Living a frugal lifestyle comes with self-discovery and lots of learning because you start to do things you would normally pay for. For example, if you usually sourced out someone to do the laundry, cook, or clean the house, adopting a frugal lifestyle would mean doing all these chores yourself to save money.
You’re no longer envious of what others have:
It helps you be less envious of others because you’ve learned to become content with what you have. You’re comfortable with your spending habit and what you have and not bothered about the latest gadgets your neighbor just bought. You have also learned that you’re not in competition with anybody but yourself.
Reduces waste:
Being frugal helps reduce waste. Waste here refers to things that we buy but don’t end up using or needing it. Living a frugal lifestyle means that impulse buying is curtailed. Hence, there is no item you purchase that will not be of importance.
What does this mean?
A frugal lifestyle does not necessarily mean that you’re stingy to yourself. It is a lifestyle that requires discipline and intent to improve one’s financial strength and capacity by living within your means. A frugal lifestyle sets you on the way to financial freedom and independence.
